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Comments (196)

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  z2
  This all feels like a race where the model companies try to solve doing work locally in a way that doesn't suck, before the major operating systems companies figure out AI integration into their OS that doesn't suck. It also makes me wonder why Google which has both Gemini and Android can't figure this out, and if there are lessons to draw from that.
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  nathanyz
  The VM itself is for Claude Cowork which does all work within the VM sandbox. That doesn't help answer why they spin it up immediately and don't have a way to disable it though. Just the "why it exists" question.
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  literatepeople
  I didn’t get a screenshot of this, but I just found a really pointed example of Anthropics lack of craft / rush to build. If you open Claude on Windows, and click Dispatch (under cowork) to start that up, it will tell you that you need permissions windows doesn’t have. When you click the buttons for those permissions, it has broken links to macOS system preferences. I really encourage someone to try it and post the images as a reply as I am writing this from my phone.
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  tom1337
  I won't understand why Cowork isn't simply opt-in. It also installs a ~10GB vm bundle which you cannot removehttps://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1rlc71n/claude_de...
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  zkmon
  Back in the day, personalization / customization was all the rage, as it lets the user feel the control, power and freedom. Now it's the opposite. It's about not letting user to have any control at all. I can't delete some junk apps from my phone and mac, because they are "system" apps. As a non-geek, I can't deal with complexity of the browser and account settings to stop it from what is doing. We are at the mercy of the machines.
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  dbmikus
  Understand that it is annoying to spin up a heavyweight VM whenever running Claude Desktop, but I actually think per-app + agent virtualization is the future. Next version of an app is: 1. micro VM 2. agent on the VM 3. software bundled into the VM Then the agent is totally sandboxed at the hardware virtualization level. It can use the software tools on the VM or write its own. VM can control which software is "frozen" and which is open to agent modification. And VM can also control which services are exposed outside the VM through sockets, HTTP server, X window system, whateverIt's self-modifying apps that are sealed off from touching parts of the computer they shouldn't.
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  cortesoft
  Isn’t it good that it spins up without no way of stopping it? Why would it be a problem that we do have a way of stopping it?
• trilogic
  Vibecoded with AGI, production ready.
• stuaxo
  Classic Anthropic, this comes across as LLM coded nonsense.
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  bryanrasmussen
  I think the title should be changed. Either with no way of stopping it, or without any way of stopping it.
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  tkcranny
  I’ve stopped using Claude on the desktop, just because of how slow the app is to start up and interact with. It’s an absolute clunker; I’m mystified why they can’t ship something that works well given their rhetoric about ai.
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  HypnoticOcelot
  "without no way" of stopping it?
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  amelius
  Why are the UIs of the AI companies all broken in multiple ways?
• deskamess
  I had my admin disable cowork a month ago and that worked. Has it resumed since then?
• torginus
  Is it just me, but this feels like Claude gets to have a nigh-impenetrable black box right on your machine and you have no idea what is going on inside it.After all, the last time I encountered Hyper-V it was in the context of copy protection that prevented crackers from observing or interfering with video game protection
• gopalv
  The weird thing is that this is probably a performance optimization for quick responses when a user asks a question.My agent harness spins up a VM too, but it spins up on demand, cools down in 10 minutes and warms up when I focus back on the app.The files it works on actually lives in a mount.People take more time to type a prompt than the VM takes to spin up on a fast machine and on a slow machine, the cooldown naturally frees RAM back to the machine.
• quacky_batak
  I also discovered this while noticing my Mac was low on storage, I only clicked on cowork once and after deleting it from the folder i’m scared to open the cowork tab coz ik it’ll just fill up the space
• tartakovsky
  Is Claude self-replicating in an attempt for world domination?
• hebetude
  lol, why even use Claude desktop? I want Claude code to stop eating up 10s of gb of virtual memory
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  Grombobulous
  As long as the VM closes when the application closes, I don’t see too much of an issue with this design decision.It seems like the VM is a core part of how you use the application.
• blurbleblurble
  They must not have used Fable 5 to vibecode that part of Claude Desktop, VMs are strictly forbidden high stakes cybersecurity work.
• JanSolo
  It's becoming self-aware! Quick, lock down the nuclear codes!
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  jacobgold
  I have two friends that are using coding agents on Windows, which was surprising to learn.Edit: yes, with WSL2 I believe in both cases.I would have assumed almost everyone would get a Mac/Linux computer to use coding agents because Unix is their "native" platform. It's Bash tool calls all the way down.Does anyone know a source for reliable data on what coding agent apps devs are using? How many are using Code Claude CLI vs Claude Desktop, etc?
• gastonmorixe
  Safari > Add to Dock > done
• WalterBright
  > without no wayNot no way not no how!
• andix
  I've stopped using cc a while ago, because it always comes up with new surprises like that.
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  paulddraper
  Please edit the title.Currently "Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it"Should be "Claude Desktop spins up a VM with no way of stopping it"
• valeriozen
  the vm makes sense for cowork but no off switch is weird. a visible sandbox on/off toggle would do more for trust than any safety blogpost imo
• boudra
  i had to uninstall it due to the vm taking around 12G of disk, never touched Cowork. didn't realize they were also launching it
• anon
  undefined
• myk9001
  How come Claude Code still hasn't triaged and fixed this? Feed it the bug link, someone.
• giancarlostoro
  and on my Mac any time I accidentally click Cowork which I don't use whatsoever, it re-makes the same VM, without asking me. It's one of the dumbest things ever. You're about to hijack nearly 20GB of my storage (which gets eaten up as it is) and you don't think to ask me if I even want the VM before you shove one into my system?
• calin2k
  with no way or without no way?
• shevy-java
  People trust skynet.People are very foolish. The younger generation needs to watch the Terminator franchise - it is all explained there.
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  Rastonbury
  it took up 12gb on mine
• rvz
  When was the last time Claude's C Compiler was updated? 4 months ago? [0]It is written in Rust™, surely it is better than the rest of them.[0] https://github.com/anthropics/claudes-c-compiler
• behole
  13 GIGS! Between that and the absorbent space MACOS sucks up, it's challenging.
• taf2
  kill -9
• aplomb1026
  [flagged]
• litmus-pit-git
  [dead]
• redsocksfan45
  [dead]
• helezon77
  [flagged]
• pier25
  So a company which has access to practically unlimited tokens and their best models makes crappy software. Huh who would've thought?/s